Good Letters

Poetry Friday: “Relic”

By Matthew Thorburn

They say the flu circulating this season begins with the sensation of having swallowed a tiny sword. For the relief of such ailments, some Catholics seek the Blessing of the Throats in February on the Feast of St. Blaise, patron saint of sufferers of throat diseases.

The narrator of Matthew Thorburn’s “Relic” describes his schoolboy experience of this ritual as “weird magic,” “ a spell to believe/in” – as much a relic in his present life as an old coat he can’t part with, the reliquary the boy spoils at the poem’s conclusion, and the sort of belief that “blew away” with the exposed specks of bone.

The narrator’s story of lost faith is not entirely convincing, however. Given the potency of the poem’s language, the reader cannot quite believe “the lost voice” is incurable. Unlike the debunked magic of the spoiled reliquary – magic that disappeared with the scattered flecks of bone – the old coat of belief, though unbuttoned, still keeps its place in the narrator’s closet.